Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a type of digital multiplexing in which two or more signals or bit streams are transferred apparently simultaneously as sub-channels in one communication channel, but are physically taking turns on the channel. The time domain is divided into several recurrent timeslots of fixed length, one for each sub-channel.
Some implementations of a channelized communication environment use First-In First-Out (FIFO) queues to buffer the data of each channel. When the transmission rates, the data arrival times, or the data request times are different or independent, a FIFO is used to buffer the data in each channel. When the channel processing is performed by a single Integrated Circuit (IC), it is easy to share a block of Random Access Memory (RAM) for all FIFO data, but each channel has separate FIFO controls for processing the data. If the FIFO control data is stored in the IC's logic registers, the number of registers needed to manage the FIFO queues grows linearly with the number of channels.
As modern telecommunication links grow in speed and capacity, the number of channels sharing a given path can grow into the hundreds or thousands, or even more. For example, base stations handling mobile communications can share one land line to handled hundreds or thousands of phone conversations. Implementing a large number of FIFO queues requires a large number of logic registers in the IC for managing these complex multi-channel communication links.
It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise.